The Divergent Games I: Belladonna Lilies
by Renee Belladonna
Summary: A thriller, a romance, a science fiction, an action, a fantasy. Everything readers love about a book. And the best part? It's a crossover between two of the best selling novels, The Hunger Games and Divergent.


I never knew what could come out of a game. A winner, a few losers, a cheater, a liar, a player, a constructor. The basic things that accompany any form of entertainment. I never knew people could be equivalent to meager pawns when placed into a careful set up. But I do now.

A few years ago, our factions soon came to realize we were quickly drifting closer and closer to another small continent, in which no one ever knew about. The continent was called Panem, and while their land was only a third of a place once known as North America, our Faction Island was only a fourth of Panem's. By the time we finally came into contact with the continent, our island had still been afloat in the sea. After an alliance was made between Panem and the Faction Island, bridges between the two were built, and with the combined knowledge of Panem's and Erudite's technological advances, we were enabled to have millions of mechanical laborers go down hundreds, thousands of feet into the ocean to chain the island to the sea floor. We've been connected ever since I was eight, six years ago.

But there was a larger meaning to our truce. The five of our factions were forced to spread out among Panem's districts. The Capitol moved their great city onto the Faction Island, and our faction officials moved into the old Capitol, renaming it the Summit.

Quickly, every citizen of Panem had to choose a faction, no matter if they lived in the districts, the Captiol or the Summit. I was a born Dauntless, so I stayed like that. I was supposed to go through initiation in two years when I would turn sixteen, whether I would choose another faction or decide to stay Dauntless. Now there's a new system.

Each year, no matter what district you live in, five teenagers from ages fourteen to seventeen from each faction are selected randomly to compete in a death match known as the Divergent Games. Only three were aloud to live at the end of the game.

The way you play is simple, yet extremely complex. You had to kill five other tributes to become Divergent, and be transferred to phase two of the arena. But there were loopholes in that. When you kill another tribute, you receive their Faction Token automatically. So say you're Candor and you kill all the Dauntless tributes that haven't killed anyone yet. You may not advance to phase two of the arena, because you need at least one Faction Token from each faction.

But Abnegation must always put themselves in front of their allies. Amity can never strike first. Candor may never tell a lie. Erudite must always abide by the rules. Dauntless can never back down from a fight. Tokens can be stolen or given from ally to ally. So you may not be a hard core murderer, but you could be an excellent thief to become Divergent and enter the second phase of the arena.

My birthday was two days ago, May 21st, so I'll be eligible as a Dauntless tribute today when the Reaping takes place. I try not to think about this though, just on the simplicity of waking up to the warm, fresh and salty smell that belongs distinctly to District 11.

**The Divergent Games:**

** Belladonna Lilies**

Thick rays of sunlight gleam through the slightly dusted over glass of my bedroom window. The soft beams of natural heat against my skin should be a soothing gesture of the earth, but today it only reminds of the hour I'll have to face. The day I don't want to wake up from the nightmares- the day my name will be entered in four times along with other Dauntless teenagers to be picked by the Summit. The day I have a chance against my will to be sent in luxury to my own agonizing death.

I rub my groggy eyes, and then sit up in bed. My family is not rich, nor are we poor. When my little brother, Tyson, is old enough, we will share the same room together. But for now, in his little two year old toddler body, he remains in his crib in my mother's bedroom. This morning he whines, but through our house's thin walls I can hear my mother lulling him back into a calm state. I dress quickly in a black shirt and shorts, the color of Dauntless. In my faction, we value bravery. Which is why most Dauntless don't live a very long life or become Factionless. At least, that's how it used to be, when bravery meant going to extreme and drastic measures.

I tie my long, wavy dark brown hair back into a ponytail and put on my baseball cap, adding a touch of dark eyeliner to my waterline and a heavy coat of mascara to my lashes. The typical look of Dauntless teenage girls. After lacing up my hand-me-down smoke jumper boots that flipped outwards a couple inches above my ankles, I step outside into the hallway, walking down into the living room. I found my mother there, sitting on the sofa feeding Tyson a bottle of formula. She smiled up at me, and I thought of how beautiful she looked compared to me. We had the same body structure, tall, lean and muscular like most Dauntless, only her hair was straight and black, and her skin was an even tone of olive. I must have inherited my looks from my father, whom I've never met.

I ate a quick breakfast, kissed my mother and Tyson goodbye, and then headed out the door with my leather grip metal bat. This bat was so fresh and new, just recently stolen from District 11's sports shed. You see, girls don't have all the same rights as guys do in District 11 even if we're Dauntless. We're not allowed to play baseball or football, but all other activities. We can't even buy the sports equipment for those games unless we're accompanied by a male who actually plays. That's why I have to steal bats and gloves from the school's sports shed, as does my best and only friend Kelli take her baseballs. She was a mad pitcher, with enough power and speed in her swing for the ball she threw to go through a couple layers of skin, probably even make you bleed. And that's why I loved her.

I walk down the dirt road the way Dauntless normally do, arms swinging at my sides, brows raised, eyes a third of the way closed and a slightly hunched back that made us look like we were scouting out prey. I make my way to the old diamond secluded by woods and wheat fields, where Kelli already stood on the pitcher's mound. She threw her baseball back and forth between her left gloved hand and her right throwing hand. She looked up to me once I made the clinking noise of opening the fence gate that borders the diamond, and smiled.

"Hey, babe." she said in a sarcastic voice with a sinister grin across her lips.

"Hey, hun." I replied with the same tone and facial expression. I took to my place at home base, widened my feet to shoulder width apart, leaned over just a bit, and gripped my bat tightly with both hands, hovering it just above my right shoulder. Kelli and I didn't waste any time when it came to playing baseball- we got right down to it since we knew we only had so much time to play such an exciting sport. I hadn't known about baseball until the Faction Island came to Panem and the factions spread out among the districts, so now, after six years of learning, I'm a hardcore player. Kelli could pitch better than any boy baseball player in the district, probably even in all of Panem. She was like a mad, fierce knife thrower when it came to hurling that ball.

Well for me, my strength was batting.

The white sphere laced with red came whizzing up into the air, and then straight at me. Upon instinct, I swung my metal bat off my shoulder and through the air like slicing right through a tree with a heavy ax. The ball cracks and the bat clings as the two make strong contact, and the vibrations are distributed through every bone and nerve in my body. A slight shudder goes through my spine, only a good one. The kind you get from just the right hit of adrenaline.

Kelli's baseball repels right back toward her through the atmosphere, and flies about fifty feet over her head, barreling itself into the dirt thirty yards away from the fence that encloses us into the diamond. It takes us a few moments to realize what just happened, but when we do, we turn to each other with grins curled all the way up to our eyes.

"Best damn players all the way to the Summit!" Kelli shouted, and whipped her glove to the ground. I chucked my bat into the dirt left of the base, and began to jog to first. With two fists in the air, I made a woo sound as I reached second, and then let my arms go loose as I came around third and then back to home. I haven't hit a home run like that in a whole year.

I started walking across the clay mix of sand mix of dirt and met Kelli halfway between the pitcher's mound and home base. I knew I'd woken up late so Kelli and I would only have so much time to play since it's a mile walk from our houses to here, but I didn't know I'd only get one shot in before the sun read noon. But still, I'm glad that my only hit was that one. Man, am I proud, as I know Kelli is too. Only I could take a pitch like that. Her throw would have knocked any other baseball player to the ground.

We gripped our right hands together and held them between our chests and grinned at each other. People say Kelli and I look a lot alike, only her hair was longer than mine and a lighter shade of brown, as was it less of a mix between curly and wavy. Her eyes were much lighter, such a faded blue that they almost looked grey. We had the same pale skin tone, though. Only, I guess we weren't all that white. For District 11 citizens we were, but compared to people in other districts we had a nice tan going on.

We were the same height, the same weight, and we looked it too. Tall, lean and muscular. Somewhat wide hip bones and long, thin legs with big feet. I look into her eyes, my grin still baring, "That was a hell of a pitch." I say, and then suddenly I remember something important, and my expression grows serious. "How many times?" I ask, and I know that she knows exactly what I mean. She looks down at her shoes, and her other hand goes up to her chest and fumbles over her silver chain necklace that holds half a skeleton skull with cross bones behind it, and the letter F dangling just below it. This is what she does when she's nervous- I've known her for too long.

"Eight." she muttered, and refused to stare back at me. _Eight? _It was so unfair. Kelli lived in a family of seven, and even with all her siblings working and her parents too, she still had to take tessera, even though she was the youngest at the age of fourteen and this would be her first Reaping, like me. I only lived in a family of three, so my name was entered four times. I knew that Kelli's and my name would be entered with over ten thousand other Dauntless, but still. There were Dauntless out there that only had to be entered once.

"Well," I said, beginning to change the subject. "We better part ways. Moms' probably have something laid out for us and we need to get washed up." I tightened my grip on her hand, and then let go. My fingers started to caress my own necklace, a replica of hers only it was the left half and instead of having an F below it, it had the letter B. Kelli nodded, and started walking towards the gate behind home plate, while I walked opposite of her to the one behind second. We both exited the diamond at the same time, and I jogged over to where the ball had landed. After picking it up and dusting it off a bit, Kelli came around the side of the gate just enough for me to underhand the ball all the way to her. Then, we waved and walked in separate directions. Her way, through an invisible path through the wheat fields back to her house, and me through the woods that I knew like the back of my hand to navigate me back to the gravel roads of the more modern side of District 11.

When I began to see my house over the hillside, my mother must have sensed me and walked out the screen door to our front porch. As I got closer, I could tell she was holding Tyson, who must have just fallen asleep in her arms. It was probably a good thing, too, because the last two Reapings he's been to he bawled the whole time while my mother and I spectated. Well, now the both of us weren't there to soothe him. My mother and I would be parted.

Despite the upcoming events, although, my mother wore a big smile across her cheeks. She lead me inside and to the bathroom, "Get washed up, honey. I've already laid something out for you." she said in her old soul voice. She was only thirty one, but her speech made you sometimes think you were talking to a wise old lady. I did as she said, entered the bathroom and found a tub of warm water already drawn for me.

Quickly, I stripped and washed my body immediately, scrubbing all the grime off my skin, the muck out of my fingernails and the sweat out of my hair. When I was done, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and entered my bedroom in nothing but a towel.

I found a satin brown dress laying on the blankets of my bed, with no sleeves but thick tank top straps. It was plain and thick, and lying across from it was a wide black belt. Sometimes I felt odd wearing other colored clothes since Dauntless mostly wore black for reflecting our bravery, but still, I liked it. My mother knew I liked earthy colors like brown, green and yellow. After zipping on the dress and wrapping the belt tightly under my chest line, I came to find that the dress swayed just down to my knees, and that against my bedroom mirror were black flats. Like any other Dauntless, I couldn't stand heels, either.

My mother entered the room and stood behind me in front of the mirror, gesturing for me to sit down while she did my hair. She twisted and braided two strands of dark brown waves on either side of my head and tied them in the back, leaving the rest of my hair to flow as it pleased. She applied my dark make up and I slipped into the flats, and for the first time, I realized that this dress completely revealed my tattoo. My mother and I had matching ones of a belladonna lily on our left upper arm. My mother got hers when she was pregnant with me, when she was seventeen years old.

She told me that when she was a teenager she belonged to a gang of women called the 'Belladonna Lilies', known for their immense beauty and manipulative attractiveness. But if you got too close, their 'toxic' would kill you. When I was born, my father couldn't stay for long. Apparently he was an Erudite, the faction that values knowledge, so my mother and him could never be together. But when the Faction Island hit Panem, he promised her that when he got just enough money, he would come and live with us in District 11 as his family had pulled him to District 5. I've always longed to see him.

Tyson has a different father, whom I've never met either. Sometimes I got mad at my mom for that, for going and getting knocked up by some guy that wouldn't even help out with the family or the house, but I could never stay mad at her for long. She and Kelli were my best friends.

We walked along with the rest of the crowd to the Town Square, a mix of all the factions. Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite, and Dauntless. Today, we all could be considered equal, as if the factions never even existed because we were all dressed in colors that didn't resemble our faction. But by the way you walked, talked and stared, it was easy for me to point out who was from which faction. Amity, who always has that bounce in their step. Abnegation, who walks with their arms straight at their sides, looking no where but forward. Erudite, most wearing glasses that they didn't even need. Candor looking bored with their eyes half closed and their arms crossed over their chests.

Once I was in the line for signing in, my mother kissed my cheek gently and tried to keep Tyson asleep. She headed off into the spectator's section, and then after getting my finger pricked and stamped next to my name, I filed in along with the other fourteen year olds. I found the Dauntless girls and blended in with them, and met up with Kelli. We did not speak with each other, but we linked our arms together and that was just enough to get us through. Once everyone had made their way to the square, a large screen flashed with light against the Justice Building. There, they told the long and boring story of how the Faction Island came into contact with Panem, and how the Divergent Games were created. Then, the screen switched over to a young man sitting at his desk with the Summit flag hung up just behind him. The Head Gamemaker, Sabastian Vaughn. He's been announcing the tribute names ever since the Divergent Games was created. He greeted us with a nonchalant hello, and then got down to business.

Soon, he had burned through the names of Abnegation, Amity, Candor and Erudite. No one from District 11 had been called yet, which I was feeling pretty good about. After two Dauntless male names I did not recognize, his voice perked up.

"Cameron Janson, age 16, District 11." he said, and I knew immediately who it was. The best hitter of one of District 11's baseball teams, the one I had always wanted to join. We both hated each other. He mounted the stage with pride, as any Dauntless would, though I knew he was desperately scared. Sabastian read another name, a girl from District 4, and then my heart stopped, and soon everyone was staring at me.

No, they were staring at Kelli. Weren't they? The Dauntless girls had all spread out around us, leaving Kelli and I standing in an open circle surrounded by watching Dauntless, with only one path that leads up to the stage. I turned my head and looked over at her, but she was already looking back at me. Her lips were slightly opened, and I could tell her big eyes were about to spill. But I knew she was holding it back, because crying shows cowardice to most teenagers of Dauntless, while adults will disagree. I glared down at our crossed together arms, and then at her necklace. We're supposed to be together. Always. That's what the necklaces symbolized when we got them. That no matter if we were in a fight or we were depressed or people were holding us away from each other, we were always whole. Now I knew that we were going to be separated. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the screen flash off. Officials were searching the grounds to find whoever was called, and a few of their eyes fell on Kelli and I.

"You-" Kelli choked out through the lump in her throat. "You better get up there, Renee Belladonna." and I couldn't tell if she was trying to be a little hopeful by saying my full name, or if she was just repeating what Sabastian had said. I nod, and slowly, I started to walk toward the stage.

Two tributes from one District was normal. But two tributes from the same faction was extremely rare.

My and Kelli's intertwined arms began to turn into us holding hands, and then I had walked just far enough away from her that we were no longer touching. I made my way up to the stage escorted by Officials, and as I stood there watching everyone from high grounds, my vision began to blur together. I heard a baby crying over the silence, and I knew it was Tyson. I started to get dizzy, and then the next thing I knew, my head had banged against the wooden floor boards of the stage and I couldn't see anymore.

**End**

**Chapter 1 **

**The Divergent Games **


End file.
